British soldier does the biz!

It takes a real soldier to do this sort of stuff…

A soldier from Selby has been awarded the Military Cross – the third-highest gallantry award – for his bravery during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan.

L/Cpl Cpl Colin Spooner, 22, of the 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment, suffered extensive shrapnel wounds in the attack last October.

Despite intense pain, he continued giving orders and refused a stretcher as it would be a drain on manpower.

The Army said he had shown “exemplary leadership and courage”.

L/Cpl Spooner was leading a patrol in Helmand when they came under attack by about 40 Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

As he ran back and forth across an exposed compound to relay messages to his comrades, a shell exploded directly behind him.

He was thrown into the air and suffered 32 shrapnel wounds.

Receiving his award at a ceremony in Plymouth on Thursday, L/Cpl Spooner said: “One of my mates came out , dragged me back into cover and gave me medical attention.

“Due to the amount of fire that was coming it would have taken four blokes to carry me so I took it upon myself to walk as much as I could so those four blokes could carry on fighting.”

He said he was “very proud” to receive the Military Cross, but was also proud of his regiment and the support they had given him.

“My mum was overwhelmed [by the award],” he said.

“My mum cried. My dad shed a little tear.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Spooner’s decisive action, exemplary leadership and courage as Section Commander with B Company Group contributed enormously to the successful outcome of a difficult situation.

“His outstanding contribution took place despite extraordinarily dangerous circumstances and the pain that resulted from the extensive shrapnel wounds he had incurred.”

Makes me proud to be British seeing our boys step up and open a can of whoop ass on those murdering fucks!

BMQ Instructors

Anyone who’s been on BMQ (that’s basic training for Canada’s military) will almost certainly tell you they had problems with certain instructors. I know I definitely did.

No names obviously because that’s not professional but he weird thing is by the end of the course I ended up greatly respecting those instructors I had problems with.

For instance… during a classroom lesson I volunteered to go down and fill up the huge water can for everyone. I had to go to a different than normal water source because a Corporal told me the one we’d been using wasn’t drinkable water. So off I went. Once I got back to the classroom, everyone was waiting outside on a break saying I was in trouble. Turns out I’d left my C7 rifle beside my chair during the lesson and didn’t take it with me. I naturally assumed that buddy next to me would look out for me because I was doing something for everyone else. So when the class went on a break and buddy didn’t pick up my rifle the instructor took it. The remedial training I received was that Read more...